Walter Bishop
| Name=Walter Bishop | Age=64 | Status=Alive | Profession=Research Scientist }}Walter Bishop was an eccentric researcher specializing in fringe science. After seventeen years of being locked up in a mental institution, which had many negative effects on his personality, Walter was eventually recruited by the FBI to work in their Fringe Division alongside Olivia Dunham and his son, Peter Bishop. Biography Pre-Season One Walter Bishop was born in Cambridge in 1946, and attended Harvard University, conducting postgraduate study at Oxford and MIT. His I.Q., a profoundly above-average 196, made him one of the most brilliant scientific minds of his generation. From the 1970s until around 1991, Walter, an endowed chair of Biochemistry at Harvard, conducted experiments in the basement of the college's Kresge building, along with his lab partner William Bell and their assistants. The field of the duo's experiments ranged from quantum physics to genetic engineering, propelling Walter into an unknown relationship with the U.S. government to advance its most scientifically innovative -- and ethically questionable -- research projects under the heading of fringe science. It is also implied that during this time, Walter wrote the manuscript "Destruction Through Technology," known in German as "Z.F.T." At one point in the early 1980s, Walter assisted William Bell's experiments on children using the drug "Cortexiphan". The test subjects included both Olivia Dunham and Nick Lane. However, an accident in 1991 resulted in the death of at least one of his assistants , beginning many accusations of Walter using humans as guinea pigs for his experiments. Charged with manslaughter, Walter was instead deemed mentally unstable and admitted to St. Claire's Psychiatric Institution. Only Walter's immediate family were able to visit him in the institution, though it took seventeen years before his son, Peter Bishop, would even speak to him. Season One When John Scott, an FBI agent, was infected by a toxin that caused his flesh to degenerate, agent Olivia Dunham discovered that Walter had conducted research on a very similar type of toxin. With the reluctant help of Walter's estranged son Peter, Olivia was able to speak to Walter about the toxin; he revealed that he had known someone would ask him about it. Olivia had much trouble communicating with Walter, as his words were disjointed and he was distracted. After several questions he demanded to see Peter. The two reunited briefly and informally, and Peter showed some hostility toward his father. However, this meeting seemed to help Walter regain his focus, and he stated that he would need to see Scott's afflicted body in order to identify how advanced the toxin was. Walter was then released by the hospital into Peter's custody, and he traveled back to the hospital to examine Scott. During this, he discovered that his former laboratory had been closed down, and he became violently upset. At his request, the FBI reopened the laboratory and provided Walter with several pieces of equipment, including a cow. The laboratory was subsequently reopened. Making the laboratory his headquarters, Walter became more enthusiastic and less distracted, though he still acted somewhat eccentrically, often developing cravings for foods that he had been deprived from during his time in the mental institution. In the process of solving the case, Walter used a synaptic transfer to give Olivia access to John Scott's memories, a process that would later be repeated several times. After the case was solved, Peter elected to stay with Walter to help solve more cases related to The Pattern. After solving two cases related to his previous work , a case of a mysterious cylinder that burrowed up from the ground presented itself to Walter, and Walter found it necessary to hide the cylinder from everyone else. The cylinder case also led him into contact with The Observer, whom he had met before during a car accident from Peter's childhood. Season Two Walter displays traits atypical of Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism, which includes social awkwardness of various types, in varying degree, and mildly obsessive behavior. Asperger Syndrome is also marked by difficulty in reading body language and a flat affect which is often mistaken for a lack of empathy. This may also contribute to why he doesn't feel moral hazard in using human beings as test subjects, but is explained when Walter has an MRI of his brain. Walters charts show that he has been through a procedure on his brain. A review of Walter's test results show that has had three incisions on the left temporal lobe. Walter had tissue removed from his hippocampus, which stores memory and contributes to spatial awareness. This was done by his friend William Bell to remove the memory of how Walter opened the doorway to the dimension. When his pieces of brain were reconnected by Newton he seemed more normal than ever. Trivia *Has trouble sleeping without someone singing "Row, row, row your boat" after spending time with another St. Claire's patient named Carlos. *Has begun to prescribe and administer his own medication - a cocktail of psychoactive drugs. Claims it re-balances him after having been institutionalized for 17 years. *The Kresge Building is the home of the Harvard School of Public Health. *Has sudden cravings for certain foods and/or beverages. *He has a cow. She lives in the lab and is named Gene. *He frequently forgets Astrid's name: referring to her by many variations including Asterisk, Asteroid and others. *He got his sanity back for a short amount of time in one of the episodes. He became surprisingly hostile, which also happens when he hears bad news or someone interrupts him. *He claims to know what KFC's eleven secret herbs and spices are. *His other universe counterpart is the secretary of defense. Category:Season One Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Characters Category:Main Characters